Aggressive Driver Enrages Fellow Motorist

February 8, 1992|By Fred Lowery

The voice on the telephone line bore the unmistakable lilt of its owner`s East Indian heritage, but the anxiety it displayed was evidence that this was yet another driver absolutely fed to the teeth with his fellow motorists.

We`ll call him Joe.

He had just undergone a maniac driver experience, he said, having had the misfortune of being in front of a fellow in a gray Thunderbird with Oklahoma plates who felt tailgating, horn blowing, simulated ramming from behind and assorted other rudeness was the way to get ahead on the road. This had taken place on Powerline Road from Glades Road to Yamato Road, then east on Yamato until the Oklahoma yahoo turned into the IBM plant.

``It was worse than him having a gun; he could wipe out a whole family,`` Joe said. ``I`ve driven over a million miles since 1968, been a professional driver in this country and in Europe, and I have never seen such disregard for other drivers as I see here, except in Eastern Europe and Italy.``

The nasty driving was bad enough, Joe said, but what incensed him even more was the attitude of police.

There was nothing that could be done, they told him, unless an officer actually saw this yo-yo doing his reckless driving thing.

``The police spend time catching speeders, but they don`t catch people playing this intimidating game,`` Joe said. ``It`s almost sickening we have to put up with situations like that.``

He plans to launch a lobbying effort with state and federal legislators to get the laws changed to force law enforcement officers to investigate and cite overly aggressive drivers.

This part of the American Dream, he said, has turned into a nightmare.

``In England, you make a complaint to the police, no matter how small, and they investigate it,`` he said. ``It should be the same here.``

There is a matter of constitutional law, said Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Jim Howell. Traffic infractions, with the exception of drunken driving cases, are considered to be civil violations. Officers are expressly prohibited from pursuing civil cases unless they witness an infraction.

Even in drunken driving cases, when a police agency gets a complaint of someone driving erratically, an officer must see the erratic behavior before a stop can be made, Howell said. And when investigating an accident, it is still considered a civil case until there are signs that drinking may be involved.

TURNING GREEN

Just when you thought every traffic light in the world is against you, things change.

I knew taking Congress Avenue home at the end of the work day was not the way to make any time, but I did it anyway, just to see how traffic was. Traffic was better than the signals. In the 10 sets of signals between Linton Boulevard and Boynton Beach Boulevard, only the signal at Ocean Drive in Boynton Beach was green when I got to the intersection.

The rest were so red they weren`t even thinking about turning.

But just as I was thinking about giving up this trek as a lost cause, I passed onto the road north of Boynton Beach Boulevard and into what seemed like a Twilight Zone.

Despite mounting traffic, I did not hit another red light until reaching 10th Avenue North in Palm Springs, six signals up the road.

Another four green lights north of that, I arrived at my destination of Forest Hill Boulevard, rounded the turn and headed for home, scratching my head in wonderment over what had just happened.

JERKS OF THE WHEEL

Lantana police regularly run radar checks at various points on Ocean Avenue between Federal Highway and the Intracoastal Waterway.

And it`s a shame they weren`t doing that when this week`s nominee made a shambles of speed limits on Hypoluxo Island and on Ocean Avenue.

He was first spotted by an island resident on West Atlantic Drive, blowing past normal traffic far in excess of the 20 mph speed limit, then barely slowing at the stop sign where West Atlantic and East Atlantic join.

Unfortunately for his desire to get there first, our nominee was forced to stop at the red light at Ocean Avenue, but after the signal turned green he headed west in the company of two other speeders, ripping along Ocean in a cloud of dust.

The driver appeared to be ``some sort of VIP,`` our resident nominator said, because the tag on the car was a personalized plate, containing only three numbers.

That may or may not be a sign of importance, since anybody can pay a few dollars more for a personalized tag, but if the vehicle is used for traffic infractions, it certainly is an easier tag to remember.

---- Jerks of the Wheel is a regular feature of Down the Road; nominations are now open. To let us know about that recent close encounter, or just comment on driving in Palm Beach County, write: Down the Road, Sun-Sentinel, 3333 S. Congress Ave., Delray Beach, Fla. 33445; or call the Sun-Sentinel Traffic Line: 243-6543 in southern Palm Beach County.